1. Technical Field
The technology disclosed herein relates to an imaging device that acquires image data from an optical image of a subject.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an environment with relatively little light, such as indoors, flash photography is performed using a flash device.
However, when the flash light is shined directly at the subject, there may be dark shadows in the background of the captured image, or there may be glare on the subject.
In view of this, bounce flash photography has been proposed in which the light emitter of the flash device is aimed at the ceiling or a wall. In bounce flash photography, the problems mentioned above are reduced or eliminated since flash light that has reflected off the ceiling, a wall, or some other reflecting object illuminates the subject as indirect light.
However, with bounce flash photography, it is necessary to set a bounce angle by guessing how the reflected light will actually illuminate the subject, but since the positional relation between the reflecting object and the subject varies with the situation, it is difficult to estimate the bounce angle that will be suited to the photography situation at hand.
In view of this, the teaching discussed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application H1-304439 has been proposed in order to set the bounce angle. The imaging device discussed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application H1-304439 comprises a first measuring means for measuring a subject distance, which is the distance from the imaging device to the subject, and a second measuring means for measuring a reflecting surface distance, which is the distance from the imaging device to the reflecting object. With this imaging device, the bounce angle is determined from the two distances measured by the first and second measuring means.
Also, since there is the possibility that the color temperature of light illuminating a subject will change with the color of the reflecting surface during bounce flash photography, teachings have been proposed in which the white balance is adjusted by means of light pre-emission (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application H3-45939, for example).